Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in Occupied Palestine

During the reporting period, 5 Palestinian civilians were wounded by IOF in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. A 6th civilian was also wounded by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Additionally, a Palestinian civilian was stabbed by Israeli soldiers at Kfar Etzion checkpoint near Bethlehem. During the reporting period, IOF wounded 4 demonstrators, including two children and an international human rights defender, during the dispersion of peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities in the West Bank. ■ On 19 May 2012, a number of Israeli settlers from “Yits’har” settlement attacked Palestinian agricultural areas in the southeast of Southern ‘Assira village, south of Nablus, and set fire to some of them. A number of Palestinian civilians gathered to extinguish fire. Soon, Israeli settlers threw stones and empty bottles at houses in the village. When Palestinian civilians attempted to stop this attack, an Israeli settler fired at them. As a result, a Palestinian civilian was seriously wounded by a bullet that entered the right eye and exited the left ear. IOF were present in the area and did not intervene to stop the attack. Video clips from the area showed two Israeli soldiers standing near an Israeli settler while he was firing at Palestinian civilians, which indicates that IOF support Israeli settlers in their attacks on Palestinian civilians and their property. Additionally, 5 Palestinian civilians were injured by stones thrown by Israeli settlers. ■ On 20 May 2012, a Palestinian was seriously wounded near Etzion intersection, south of Bethlehem. IOF claimed that he attempted to stab an Israeli soldier using a sharp tool, and quarrel erupted between him the soldier, as a result of which he fell onto the ground and the sharp tool entered his abdomen. He was evacuated to an Israeli hospital and was put under detention. He told a lawyer who visited him that a number of Israeli soldiers attacked him with a knife and they stabbed him in the abdomen. ■ In the Gaza Strip, on 20 May 2012, a Palestinian civilian was wounded when IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel opened fire at al-Qarara village, northeast of Khan Yunis. ■ During the reporting period, Israeli gunboats opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats in the northern and central Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported.